If someone wanted to give a speech saying they wanted to be prime minister without saying “I want to be prime minister”, then Andy Burnham has just delivered a masterclass of how to do it.
The Greater Manchester mayor opened his by-election launch, declaring it is a “change by-election” and assuring those present that he is the “change” candidate.
In his white T-shirt, black jeans and centrist dad dark jacket he skilfully presented himself as the political outsider preparing to go to Westminster to clean things up.
For fans of black and white movies it was very Jimmy Stewart as “Mr Smith Goes to Washington”.
Then you remember this is a man who is a regional mayor who has held immense powers in the area for almost a decade and is representing the government party in this contest.
Not only that, he was a former special adviser in Westminster before becoming an MP for 16 years and rising to senior ministerial positions in Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s governments.
Yet this insider and representative of the governing Labour Party is framing the prospect of his election in Makerfield as a “change”.
Everyone stood around watching the speech knows exactly what he means – and it is has nothing to do with changing Makerfield.
Mr Burnham claimed that “change” means forcing Westminster to look after “proud” post-industrial communities like this that are always “overlooked”, asking why they “face a Westminster system that puts them at the bottom of the list rather than the top of the list”.
He also listed off “change” as being something that needs to happen to the economy, housing, care, the education system and politics.
But what he really means is a change of prime minister. The cover finally slipped and we got a hint of it when he promised, as his grand finale, to “change the Labour Party”.
While Mr Burnham did not mention Sir Keir Starmer by name, it was clear that what he really thinks is that change means him going to Westminster and replacing him as Labour leader in No 10.
There were a number of Labour MPs in the background of the launch, including left-wingers Rebecca Long-Bailey and Barry Gardiner along with former Makerfield MP Josh Simons, who made way for Mr Burnham’s leadership but by stepping down to allow him to run.
Rather weirdly they were rubbing shoulders at the launch with the chief whip Jonathan Reynolds whose job is to ensure there is no change in Downing Street but happens to have a Greater Manchester constituency.
With the probable exception of Mr Reynolds those MPs too were there looking for change. The change they want is for Mr Burnham to be inside Downing Street and Sir Keir out.
In fairness to them all, all elections boil down to two positions: “change” or “stability”. In this case people want the former.
That is why Labour lost all the seats in the Wigan area in the recent council election, mostly to Reform, including to the man standing for Nigel Farage’s party, Robert Kenyon, a local plumber with an interesting history of deleted social media accounts.
If Mr Burnham had not framed this by-election battle as the start of a wider push for change in the party, he will lose to Mr Kenyon and there would have been little point in putting himself forward.
So the Manchester mayor can talk about getting the bus to Everton matches from Makerfield all he wants or wanting to reverse 40 years of Thatcherism (which he played a part in as the health secretary who brought the private sector into the NHS), but we all know what he really wants.
And so do the people of Makerfield – the top prize in British politics, to become prime minister.
